Audio 2:51
Climate Commission: Australian 'climate on steroids'

Sarah ClarkeUpdated
Mon 4 Mar 2013, 8:54 AM AEDT

Australia may have always been a land of drought and flooding rains but scientists say the nation is now experiencing a 'climate on steroids'. The summer just past was not only the hottest recorded - it delivered more record-breaking events than any previous single season. And a new report by the Climate Commission says the influence of climate change on that weather is now clear.

Transcript

TIM PALMER: Australia may have always been a land of drought and flooding rains but scientists say the nation is now experiencing a "climate on steroids".

The summer just past was the hottest recorded and a new report by the Climate Commission says the influence of climate change on that weather is now clear.

Here's environment reporter Sarah Clarke.

SARAH CLARKE: While south-east Queensland floods once again, New South Wales is cleaning up after heavy rainfall dumped in parts of the state.

As well as the wet weather, there have been devastating bushfires in at least three states, heatwaves and the hottest summer on record.

TIM FLANNERY: Look, it's been a summer of extremes. It's been a very angry summer.

SARAH CLARKE: Professor Tim Flannery is form the Climate Commission. Today it released a new report which says the recent wild weather is linked to climate change and has been made worse as a result.

Professor Will Steffen is the author the report. He says it's indicative of a trend that shows an increase in extreme weather events.

WILL STEFFEN: In Australia over the last 50 years we've seen a doubling of the record hot days. We're getting twice as much record hot weather than we did in the mid 20th century.

We're getting less cold weather. In fact if you look at the last decade we're getting three times as many record hot days as we are record cold days.

So the statistics are telling us too that there is an influence on extreme events, they're shifting.

SARAH CLARKE: Shifting and being made worse, according to this report. It states that temperature records were set in every state and territory over summer and since mid-last year much of Australia has been drier than usual.

While Queensland and New South Wakes copped heavy rainfall, Victoria and South Australia recorded their driest summer in decades.

Tim Flannery is from the Climate Commission.

TIM FLANNERY: I think one of the best ways of thinking about it is imagining that the baseline has shifted. So you know, if an athlete takes steroids for example by analogy, their baseline shifts. They'll do fewer slow times and many more record breaking fast times.

The same thing is happening with our climate system. As it warms up we're getting fewer cold days and cold events and many, many more record hot events. So it is - in effect it's a climate on steroids is what we're seeing.

SARAH CLARKE: So what can the future deliver? Well this report says expect more of the summers just gone. And with this trend likely to continue, Tim Flannery says there's an increasing cost to the community. It's a warning that's been made before but he says it's now time it's taken seriously.

TIM FLANNERY: Look I think we are seeing a real sense of exhaustion in some parts of the community, you know, flood prone areas of Queensland being one example of that. And we're seeing the actual costs now of inaction, of global inaction to deal with this problem.

We are going to be responsible for how fast we move. But from a scientific perspective, and looking at the way our climate system is responding, you'd have to say that swift decisive action this decade is the best course of action we could take.